This problem is already here, as owners of staffing firms are trying to lay claim to LinkedIn connections, Twitter followers, and blog names. It depends on the contract you signed and how good your lawyer is, but a lot of us are in the position of doing work that legally belongs to our companies, and the courts have not caught up.

On the other side, LinkedIn Connections can be exported to a external file – Twitter followers can be moved to a new address, and all of these sites have TOS agreements that actually say the person who owns the accountis using it for personal reasons and isn’t allowed to sign away the rights to a company.

Not to mention that if I say I’m leaving a company and tweet that I’m moving to a new address, or if I’m silent, but someone else tweets that I moved, those followers (the engaged ones that matter) will move with me.

It’s not an easy question, and it’s not covered in most of your contracts. Unless your company is really on top of things, their IP contracts don’t cover personal contacts on these sites, which means if even if you sign something now, it’s under duress.

How badly do you want to keep it? Look to recruiters and bloggers who sued their companies to retain their blogs when they left for legal help. And for goodness sakes, make backups of your files.

But I created the account of my own initiative. No one else contributes. I gained 700+ followers virally. I know that’s not a lot relatively. But that’s 700 people who respect what I do.

If I leave the company, that’s 700 connections I created that could help me start a new business. But I know if I’m gone it’s because my position has been eliminated. With it will go any desire to keep the account going by anyone here.

My ethics tell me to hand over the password if I leave. But those connections could be a real asset. If I start over with an account with a different, non-competing mission, I should be able to create a new following with some of the old connections. But is there a way to take advantage of the @MaineBusiness connections without hurting my employer?

The newfound transparency of new media is both a good and bad thing for employees, as you can see more into the person and see that they’re not happy. At the same time, you’re able to build a powerful personal brand if you’re willing to be open and transparent and add value to others.

Very interesting to think about!

I think as companies become more savvy to the potential relationships that are built online with prospects/customers they are going to have policies in place that some socially engaged folks won’t like. I think the side effect will be that those companies will lose out on some great talent.

John, thanks for adding some more insights to this topic and linking to my post…it’s much appreciated!

As times get tough, this usually becomes more of an issue. One of my suggestions on how to accelerate sales is to go hire your competitors superstar. So, if someone does that, where does that leave you? And he who has the best lawyers, usually win. Just watch Boston Legal, oops they are gone.

Perhaps a chicken or the egg?

This is really a tricky legal issue, ranging from a whole range of terms of service, non-competes, non-disclosures, confidentiality, and everything in-between.

To draw some larger comparisons- when Robert Scoble left Microsoft he took a huge following with him. As we see more and more “social media celebrities” or simply spokespeople, we see a strange mix of technology, marketing, customer service, administrative, etc personnel who are now “speaking” on behalf of the company.

Having come from a f50 company and organizing a massive home office salesforce, this question also came into play when accounts (home phone numbers) became high value assets that were accidentally tied to the employees (some who left, taking numbers and calls with them.)

Great question.

I suggest it is something any employer looks at and identifies well before it becomes a crisis.

~Barry